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The plate's title lends a further degree of irony to the
climactic moment since Nicholas and death providentially rescue Madeline Bray
from Gride's clutches as once again Nicholas frustrates his uncle's designs.
The melodramatic nature of the scene in chapter 54, "The Crisis of the
Project, and its Result," so obvious in the rhetoric of Nicholas as he cows
the misers, is also reflected in the physical disposition and poses of the
characters in Phiz's plate. Thus, text and illustration work together
to underscore
a memorable moment in the main plot. While the indignant youth
(centre) attempts to
comfort Madeline Bray (her limp hand signifying her unconsciousness) with
his left hand, he denounces the two malignant plotters (Ralph Nickleby and
Arthur Gride, left) as "Wretches" with his right hand.

The sequence began with the arrival of the aged groom and his
best man to collect their prize. Madeline's father, conflicted about
granting his permission for the marriage, had retired with his daughter when
Nicholas and Kate unexpectedly arrived, just before a thump on the floor above
them announced Bray's collapse. Bray has died, presumably of the stress
engendered by the insupportable situation. The precise moment that Phiz has
realized is when, having carried Madeline insensible downstairs to be
ministered to by his sister (identified by her bonnet in the illustration)
and tearful servant (right), Nicholas notes that Gride's hold over Bray is
at an end:

"That the bond, due today at twelve, is now waste paper. That
your contemplated fraud shall be discovered yet. That your schemes are known
to man, and overthrown by Heaven. Wretches, that he defies you both to do your
worst!" [Part 17, August 1839].